Maintenance
Latest
Login Server Down for Emergency Maintenance
I knew I should have just gone AFK when I went to get something to eat. Because, sure enough, as soon as I come back & try to log on, I get the good ol' "unable to connect" message.There is a message from Blizzard on the login screen that states 'We will be performing emergency maintenance on our login server this evening which may result in an inability to log in to the game', along with a bunch of other stuff that doesn't make me feel any better. Apparently, the maintenance is extended until 11PM PST. And there's not a darn thing on TV....*UPDATE* The message has been changed to read 1:00 PDT, as of a few minutes ago. Totally weak...*UPDATE* Make that 4:00 PDT. Yippee...
Maintenance 3.4
Maintenance, the beloved Automator action that can run a whole slew of maintenance tasks that command line geeks can only dream of (just kidding guys), has been updated to version 3.4. This time around, it has a shiny new icon, an expanded readme file (that explains every action it can perform) and yet another task to its tool belt: Rebuild LaunchServices Database.As always, Maintenance is donationware, as the author, Jesse Hogie, has a link on his blog.
BackityMac 1.0 - easy backup, restore and maintenance
BackityMac is a really handy, really simple to use backup and restore utility that allows you to chose from a number of different application support directories to backup into a good ol' fashioned read-only disk image. The list of library and support folders includes: Mail Entourage Keychain Safari, Firefox and Camino bookmarks iPhoto library iTunes library iWeb files Documents folder your entire Home folder However, BackityMac is no one-trick pony. It also has a Maintenance pane that allows you to perform various Mac OS X tune-up tasks such as permissions repair, deleting caches, re-indexing Spotlight, running those late-night cron scripts and more.If you haven't found a good tool or developed some kind of a backup habit yet, BackityMac is a great place to start - especially since its free. Go check it out.
Free Day!
Due to the fact that US servers were offline nearly all day yesterday, players are being given a free day of service. While it doesn't make any of yesterday's technical difficulties go away, and certainly hasn't quieted numerous complaints, it seems like a fair resolution.
Extended maintenance...
I'm sure you've all noticed that all US realms remain offline at this time. A message on the login screen stated earlier that they're starting to try to bring the servers up one at a time, but I've yet to see anything come online. No ETA is given, though we're supposed to get an update at 5:00 PM PST. I guess I didn't really want to go to Blackwing Lair anyway... now where did I put that fishing pole...Update: Servers are starting to come online again around 5:00 PM PST.
US Realm Maintenance
The US realms Aggramar, Archimonde, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Dalaran, Earthen Ring, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Kargath, Khadgar, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Mal'Ganis, Malygos, Shadow Moon, Thunderhorn, and Thunderlord will be going offline for additional maintenance on March 22 starting at 3:00 AM PST, hopefully to be back online by 6:00 AM PST. All I can say is... uh oh - my realm is on that list! Hopefully, however, this will address existing latency issues on these realms. We'll see!
Maintenance 3.3 released
Maintenance, the ever-handy Automator action (and applescript for those without Tiger) that runs a variety of, well, maintenance tasks in one fell swoop, has been updated to version 3.3. It isn't a massive update, save for two new options: Update Locate Database and Update Whatis Database. As usually, you can snag your very own copy (which includes the aforementioned applescript) of Maintenance for free from Automator World.
All Realms down for maintenance until 11am PST
All realms are currently down for scheduled maintenance until 11am PST.Looks like I picked the wrong day to log in and sit in the UC all day waiting for people to come up and sign the WoW Insider guild charter on Akama. In any case, later on today, after things are up and running, I will be logged in on Akama, sitting in the Royal Quarter of the Underground City waiting for people to come by and sign our charter. I will simply have it running while I am busy doing other work on my computer, so if I'm AFK for a while, just be patient. I will return.For the HORDE! UPDATE: They are back up now, and I'm waiting in Akama for anyone who wants to sign our guild charter. My handle is Cks.
Maintenance 3.2, now with non-Tiger goodness
It's no secret that we TUAW bloggers love Maintenance, the Automator app that runs a whole slew of maintenance and cleanup tasks. Some of these tasks are designed to be automatically run late at night by OS X, but unless you leave your Mac running 24/7 or you're crazy like me and you're simply up till all hours of the morning, you probably shut down or sleep your Mac and these tasks never see the light of day. Maintenance is great for taking care of these OS X cleanup tasks and can also run other operations such as permissions and preferences repairs - all from a slick little Automator action.But wait, what's that? You aren't using Tiger yet? Well fret no more! With the latest update to version 3.2, Maintenance now includes a good ol' fashioned applescript for non-Tiger users. I'm sure this works on Panther, and kinda sure it could work on Jaguar too, but I can't find any documentation that specifies. If anyone knows for sure, please enlighten the rest of us.Once again though, I highly recommend using this action as it's quick, unobtrusive, easy to use and pretty comprehensive in covering the key OS X cleanup tasks that have to be run.
On OS X's background maintenance tasks
I've always heard about these "background maintenance tasks" that OS X performs in its omniscient glory, but I never knew much about what they actually were or when they were performed. This weekend I finally did some digging and thought I'd post a few thoughts that might help give some Mac users insight into maintaining OS X beyond simple permissions repairs and emptying the trash.In short, OS X is designed to periodically run various maintenance tasks such as purging log files and dumping hidden and temporary files. The only problem is that these tasks by default are scheduled to run early in the morning, when I'd bet most Mac users are sleeping. This odd task scheduling is a throwback to the days when computers were never shut off, even though a lot of computer users either shut their machines down or at least set them to sleep at the end of the day - especially notebook users.So how can OS X still run these maintenance tasks and keep your Mac running squeaky clean, you ask? Well you have a few options:Like a friend of mine, you could simply set your Mac to always be up and running, optionally sleeping itself after the maintenance task schedule specified in this Apple KnowledgeBase article. This certainly isn't an ideal solution if you own a portable and leave it in a bag often overnight. You could use the simple Terminal instructions in this Apple KnowledgeBase article to run the tasks whenever you please. OS X's built-in schedule be damned!If you're on Tiger you could use the Maintenance Automator action (which we here at TUAW love) to run OS X's built in maintenance tasks, as well as a few extras such as permissions repairing and preference file verifying.These are hopefully a few simple and easy-to-implement options that will help keep your Mac running like brand new.
